Halloween is over. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, but all we got is Christmas on our minds.
And with the season of giving swirling around up there, we want to give you guys a chance to win a pair of FREE Dir En Grey concert tickets!!! We only have 5 pairs of tickets, so you better act fast!

Why are all these contests on facebook? I love crunchyroll but i'm not getting a facebook for this stuff. I think they should just run them here on the site. I think a lot more people would participate in contests if they were directly on this site.

Crunchyroll, please tell me, is this forced use of Facebook really getting you the additional publicity you want? As opposed to being less forceful and still getting publicity on Facebook?

I don't communicate on Facebook or Twitter, but I still find chances to promote and encourage use of Crunchyroll. I would believe that even if you weren't being so forceful, you'd still have people spreading word in the various popular mediums. I don't particularly believe the average person is going to react to seeing these Likes and think any differently of CR. I personally would only see the spam that Facebook is known for, and disassociate myself with that spam. Which I really did, on that specific logic, hence me dropping Facebook long ago.

On the other hand, friends speaking to friends good things about the subject has real meaning, as a friend's opinion is valued. A scenario such as a person excitedly telling his friends about a contest he won: naturally the winner is going to be in a good mood, thus will be talking in a similarly positive light. People spoken to are going to value that positivity. For example, when I won that ComiPo! contest, both through positive words and showing what it's capable of, I convinced 2 friends to get it eventually. And the possibility they may go on to spread it is great too. If it were a Facebook contest of the spam variety, my Liking and comment-entry would do nothing for them other than raise awareness of the contest, not immediate profit (I have solid evidence too in a Google+ contest I experimented in participating in, it had no impact on thoughts and opinions of my friends).

As I've implied, I think it is the wrong decision to forcefully promote on Facebook. Focus on reaching a large range where you make people happy enough that they would have something to talk to friends about. Being loose with the medium should more rapidly yield happy people that are beneficial. That seems like a faster route to profit for Crunchyroll.

Scavenger hunts and badge contests already have an upper hand in getting the end result; people will have more fun participating in them, ie. will be happpier. Thus there will be a higher level of happiness at the end, and higher probability of resulting socializing. (Note I still dislike badge contests, because of promoting dishonest entry.)